What is Fiber Optics?

November 26, 2018November 26, 2018

Fiber Optics / Optical Fiber is:

Fiber Optics / Optical Fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair.Optical fibers are used most often as a means to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber and find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than electrical cables. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss; in addition, fibers are immune to electromagnetic interference, a problem from which metal wires suffer excessively. Fibers are also used for illumination and imaging, and are often wrapped in bundles so they may be used to carry light into, or images out of confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are also used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors and fiber lasers.

Advantages of Fiber Optic line

Optical fibers have largely replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the developed world, because of its advantages over electrical transmission. Here are the main advantages of fiber optic transmission.

Extremely High Bandwidth: No other cable-based data transmission medium offers the bandwidth that fiber does. The volume of data that fiber optic cables transmit per unit time is far great than copper cables and that’s why we at ScanSat now can offer up to 1GB of speed.

Longer Distance: in fiber optic transmission, optical cables are capable of providing low power loss, which enables signals can be transmitted to a longer distance than copper cables.

Resistance to Electromagnetic Interference: in practical cable deployment, it’s inevitable to meet environments like power substations, heating, ventilating and other industrial sources of interference. However, fiber has a very low rate of bit error, as a result of fiber being so resistant to electromagnetic interference. Fiber optic transmission is virtually noise free.

Low Security Risk: the growth of the fiber optic communication market is mainly driven by increasing awareness about data security concerns and use of the alternative raw material. Data or signals are transmitted via light in fiber optic transmission. Therefore there is no way to detect the data being transmitted by “listening in” to the electromagnetic energy “leaking” through the cable, which ensures the absolute security of information.

Small Size: fiber optic cable has a very small diameter. For instance, the cable diameter of a single OM3 multimode fiber is about 2mm, which is smaller than that of coaxial copper cable. Small size saves more space in fiber optic transmission.

Light Weight: fiber optic cables are made of glass, and they are thinner than copper cables. This makes them lighter and easy to install.

Easy to Accommodate Increasing Bandwidth: with the use of fiber optic cable, new equipment can be added to existing cable infrastructure. Because optical cable can provide vastly expanded capacity over the originally laid cable. And WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) technology, including CWDM and DWDM, enables fiber cables the ability to accommodate more bandwidth.

Disadvantages of Fiber Optic Transmission

Even Though fiber optic transmission brings lots of convenience, it has 2 small disadvantages.

Fragility: usually optical fiber cables are made of glass, which lends to they are more fragile than electrical wires. In addition, glass can be affected by various chemicals including hydrogen gas (a problem in underwater cables), making them need more cares when deployed under ground.

Cost Is Higher Than Copper Cable: despite the fact that fiber optic installation costs are dropping by as much as 60% a year, installing fiber optic cabling is still relatively higher than copper cables. Because copper cable installation does not need extra care like fiber cables. However, optical fiber is still moving into the local loop, and through technologies such as FTTH and PONs (passive optical networks), enabling subscriber and end user broadband access.

Why Scan Sat Network commits and focus on Fiber Optics:

Scan Sat Network believes in providing a high quality service with a great stability to a price affordable for everyone. Scan Sat is currently deploying fiber in most part of Torrevieja, expanding with a high pace without leaving behind the High quality they deliver, counting with a team of 10 persons dedicated to the Fiber Optic Department. At the moment Scan Sat is delivering fiber from 100MB up to 1024MB (1GB) per customer, This means that Scan Sat is the only company in Costa Blanca that has the possibilities to be able to give 1GB per Client since they have their own servers and all cabling is done correctly with a high quality cable.

Scan Sats actual offers are Fiber Optics + IPTV for a price of 27€ /Month, including 100MB Guaranteed Fiber Connection + more than 120 Scandinavian & British Channels on IPTV.Read More about Offers.

Summary

Fiber optic transmission is widely used for data transmission and is increasingly being used in place of metal wires because of its efficiency and high transmission capacity. We have seen the fiber optic cables have replaced traditional copper twisted-pair cable or coaxial cable. As the use and demand for great bandwidth and fast speed, there is no doubt that fiber optic transmission will bring more opportunities and be continuously researched and expanded to cater for future demands.